Google Is Bringing Snapchat-Like Stories to Search

Along with the new AMP Story format, Googleannounced, today at its Conference in Amsterdam, a new way for developers to leverage the fast-loading, mobile-friendly AMP framework. Called AMP stories, the new Google template is free and available to anyone.

According to Google, starting today, users can see AMP stories on Google Search. (Note: Stories were not included in the search results on this reporter's device, but did work for others at Quartz.) Google worked with those publishers to develop the format.

Further, AMP for email will provide real-time info for flights, events, news, purchases, and more inside emails, alongside ability for recipients to browse and interact with up to date content.

As yet the new format exists as a preview only whilst developers scramble to get their heads around the new format, with no tools yet available to build AMP stories. That's where AMP stories sets itself apart.

Google has also partnered with several big publishers including CNN, Conde Nast, Hearst, Mashable, Meredith, Mic, Vox Media and The Washington Post.

The AMP Project Website claims that the project would be immersive, fast and open. Outlets controlled by these corporations have since started creating stories for the mobile web. It'll look a lot like Snapchat Discover and Instagram Stories, and looks like Google got a lot of their ideas from the two platforms. Doing so would present you with a "Visual Stories" section that will show all the AMP Stories from the said publisher in a card-based layout. Google says an AMP typically loads from Google Search in less than one second. Until the time the ads are added, publishers will have to be content with experimenting with this new format without the addition of traditional monetization.

First, let's look at the upside, as Google presents it.

However, unlike the implementations from Snapchat and Instagram, the GoogleAMP stories don't now allow advertising to be incorporated.